World News - Professor fired over discussion of VT shootings. Paranoia and mindless Political Correctness runs rampant in this country

An adjunct professor was fired after leading a classroom discussion about the Virginia Tech shootings in which he pointed a marker at some students and said "pow."The five-minute demonstration at Emmanuel College on Wednesday, two days after a student killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus, included a discussion of gun control, whether to respond to violence with violence, and the public's "celebration of victimhood," said the professor, Nicholas Winset. During the demonstration, Winset pretended to shoot some students. Then one student pretended to shoot Winset to illustrate his point that the gunman might have been stopped had another student or faculty member been armed. "A classroom is supposed to be a place for academic exploration," Winset, who taught financial accounting, told the Boston Herald. He said administrators had asked the faculty to engage students on the issue. But on Friday, he got a letter saying he was fired and ordering him to stay off campus. ... http://www.usatoday.com

A Border Patrol agent was charged Monday with first-degree murder in the shooting of an unarmed illegal immigrant at the border in January.An investigation found that Agent Nicholas Corbett's killing of Francisco Dominguez-Rivera, of Puebla, Mexico, was not legally justified, said Cochise County prosecutor Ed Rheinheimer.Corbett is also charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. A judge will determine which of the charges the evidence supports best, Rheinheimer said."We have concluded that the evidence shows that at the time he was shot, Mr. Dominguez-Rivera presented no threat to agent Corbett," Rheinheimer said.His attorney, Daniel Santander, didn't immediately return a message left Monday afternoon by The Associated Press. The Border Patrol said it would make a statement Tuesday....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268048,00.html

Lawmakers on Tuesday were pressing the Pentagon with questions still hovering over the friendly fire death of one-time National Football League star Pat Tillman and the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch. "The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth," House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said in his opening statement. "That didn’t happen for the two most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. For Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, the government violated its most basic responsibility." The committee's senior Republican, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, argued in his opening statement that the Lynch rescue was exaggerated by the media, not the military. He did, however, question how Tillman's death was handled by the military, saying it was a "disservice" to have let "a myth outrun the facts" about his death. In the Tillman case, a key question is whether a military Predator drone was flying overhead ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18287244/

An attacker detonated a suicide car bomb on Tuesday at an Ethiopian military base near the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses said, but it was not immediately clear if there were any other casualties."I saw the Ethiopian soldiers shouting at this car to stop, then it exploded," said Abdi Hassan, a local resident who was at the former ranch in Afgooye, 30 km (19 miles) west of Mogadishu. The blast sent thick black smoke pouring into the sky above the small farming town, where tens of thousands of Mogadishu residents are sheltering after a week of fighting in the city. Hassan said he saw Ethiopian soldiers running from the scene of the explosion, but that he thought there were few casualties because most of the troops were inside a building at the base. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3072331

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has pledged to adhere to secular principles if, as expected, he is elected president. PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday that Mr Gul had been named the governing AK party's candidate. The decision came after thousands had taken to the streets to urge Mr Erdogan not to stand. Secularists fear that a president from the AK - a party with Islamist roots - could undermine Turkey's secular order. Mr Gul insisted that "the president must be loyal to secular principles", adding: "If I am elected I will act accordingly". Both Mr Erdogan and Mr Gul have wives who wear the Islamic headscarf - a highly divisive issue in Turkey. Mr Gul defended the headscarf choice on Tuesday, saying "these are individual preferences and everybody should respect them". ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6587061.stm

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Damascus today to ask Syrian leaders to "play a constructive role" in the Middle East peace process and to press for the acceptance of an international tribunal to pursue the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Mr. Ban said that despite the brevity of the seven-hour visit, he hopes to win assurances that Syrian President Bashar Assad will use his power for good. "I [want to] be assured of his strong commitment to work for peace and security in the region and to do whatever Syria can constructively to bring peace and stability in Lebanon," Mr. Ban told The Washington Times. He said he would also seek Syrian cooperation with Security Council resolutions designed to disarm Hezbollah, end Syria's influence in Lebanon and establish a tribunal "of international character" to try suspects accused of political assassinations in Beirut....http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070423-115433-6696r.htm